Critters in the News

A voter in a tiny northeast Wisconsin town wants to bring ducks to the polling station along with a sign that reads: “If you don’t vote, you can’t squawk.”

Winneconne town clerk Yvonne Zobel says the voter asked town officials whether she could bring three caged ducks and the sign to the town hall during the November election.

Zobel ducked giving an answer initially, and instead checked with the state Elections Commission. It advised her to keep the ducks at least 100 feet away from the polling booths so they wouldn’t be disruptive.

Zobel says she’s going to tell the voter everyone likes the idea, but maybe it makes more sense to have the ducks someplace else “where it would prompt somebody to go out and vote.”

Zombie Raccoons?

Police are investigating reports of “zombie-like” raccoons in northeast Ohio.

WKBN-TV reports Youngstown police have received more than a dozen calls in the past three weeks about raccoons acting strangely in the daytime.

Photographer Robert Coggeshall says he was playing with his dogs outside his home when one such raccoon approached them. Coggeshall says the animal would stand on its hind legs, show its teeth and fall over backward.

The raccoon Coggeshall saw and 14 others police responded to were euthanized.

The state Department of Natural Resources says the animals were likely suffering from distemper, not rabies. The viral disease causes coughing, tremors and seizures and leads raccoons to lose their fear of humans.

Authorities are asking residents to report raccoons behaving unusually to their local police station.